“Are you saying he makes you feel different?”
Reese frowned. “Different?” He snorted. “More like an entirely different person.”
“In a good way? Or bad?”
“I don’t know.”
Dr. Sanders was silent, as was her way. She tended to keep quiet when she expected Reese to talk.
That was the reason he was here, though. To talk through his problems. Had Sniper 1 not forced him to go to counseling after getting shot, Reese wasn’t sure he would’ve volunteered. From time to time, he would recall what Evan had told him—how therapy had helped him process after his wife’s murder—but Reese still had difficulty buying into all the hype. Did he feel better now that he’d shared his private thoughts? Not really, no. However, he knew he wanted to make a life with Brantley, and in order to do so, he had to put in the effort. If it meant coughing up some of his secrets, so be it.
“Tell me about the night you met him,” Dr. Sanders prompted.
“I was out with friends. We were at the bar, having a couple of beers. Someone suggested we go to IHOP,” Reese recalled.
“Is that usual?”
“For me to go along with them?”
“The events. Do you usually hang out with your friends, grab an early breakfast?”
“Hang out, yes. I don’t usually make it much past the beers, though.”
“But that night was different? Why?”
Reese shrugged.
“Were you hungry?”
“No.” Reese knew what the doc was angling for, so he gave in. “I wasn’t hungry. I was … curious.”
“About?”
“Brantley.”
“Something about the introduction intrigued you?”
Reese considered telling her he’d been intrigued by the idea that Brantley was a Navy SEAL, but he knew that was just the excuse he’d told himself at the time.
“I felt something,” Reese admitted, holding the doc’s stare. “A connection, I think.”
“A connection?” The doctor seemed to mull that over. “You’ve got a military background. Was it a kinship of some sort?”
“No. It was intrinsic,” he admitted. “As though our introduction was meant to happen.”
“Interesting. Go on.”
“I was attracted to him.” Even as the words came out, Reese felt his face heat. He’d never admitted that to anyone.
“Based on what you’ve told me about him, it sounds as though he’s got a magnetic personality. Just because you’re attracted doesn’t mean anything more than that.”
“I’m not talkin’ a fondness for his presence, Doc,” he blurted. “I. Was. Attracted.”
Her gaze remained on his face, encouraging him to continue.
Reese didn’t know how to make it much clearer than that except to tell her he’d wanted to know what it would feel like to have Brantley’s hands on him. While they were both naked.
He decided to keep that to himself.
